mariness

This episode will probably be on my Hugo nomination ballot next year. So, with that as an introduction, THE CARPING! (Because it's me.)

( Cut for major spoilers about the episode, minor spoilers about A Dance With Dragons. Hey, I wasn't the showrunner who decided to pull that plot into this season. )

1) Barnes and Noble will, oddly enough, put A Dance With Dragons in a huge display area in the front of the store but not have any copies in the science fiction/fantasy section, which will get slightly interesting if you entered through the video/music section of the store and headed to the science fiction/fantasy section first and then got severely sidetracked.

2) Various people in Hollywood actually thought that a remake of Footloose would be a good idea, instead of a sign of the inevitable destruction of human civilization.

3) You can sit through nine - count them nine - movie trailers, every. single. one. of. which. will turn out to be a remake or Final Destination sequel which is actually a remake of the first few Final Destination movies.

4) Any attempts after this to tell you that Hollywood is capable of original thought will not go well.

5) This will be brightened by remembering that thanks to a rather implausible sequence of server mistakes, you actually got a free steak for lunch. This is a cheery thought.

6) You have friends capable - yes, capable - of thinking that adding airships to a Three Musketeers adaptation is actually a pretty awesome idea.

7) Horrible Bosses will turn out to be an amusing movie.

8) Despite telling yourself to read A Dance With Dragons slowly, you won't. (I'm going to give people more time to read the book before I discuss it here, since there's a couple of major spoilers that I'd like to chat about from a storytelling/world building point of view.)

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So, yes, I finally got out of the house, and read A Dance With Dragons, which did not disappoint (although at least one bit is going to annoy the hell out of anaisis, so I have to brace myself for her rant on it.) And I laughed and sang and felt better....

.....but I woke up, and I'd finished reading the book yesterday, and I still don't have my new trike. So I'm all down again. Less depressed than I would have been without the escapes from the house Friday and yesterday, because, yes, laughter helps. It helps a lot. But I'm back to feeling itchy and trapped and down, and rather wishing I had a dragon.

My current emotional fragility is scaring me; usually the bubble of escape lasts longer than this, although I am less depressed today than I was before I headed out; I'd hate to think where I'd be without yesterday. (That made sense in my head.) Going to try to focus on finishing up some writing stuff and seeing if that helps, or at least gives the false sense of accomplishment.

The greatest book in the series so far (the initial reviews for A Dance With Dragons are making me hopeful), and the first book that actually made me scream out loud at the characters. AUUGH.

This reread will repeat much of this screaming. Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for the entire book; I can't talk about it without talking about the last chapters. So. Warning.

ETA: AUUGH. HTML FAIL. So sorry everybody. I deserve to get flamed by a dragon. Cut tage is working now.

( And I just might end up spoiling a bit of Feast of Crows, too. )

Note: To be all mysterious for a moment, some of you have asked me to comment publicly on a couple of things that happened over the weekend. I am....mulling over my public response to both things, and let's just leave it there for a moment, ok? Generally speaking, and anaisis will back me up on this one, it's rarely a good idea for me to blog about stuff that can be emotionally painful until I've slept on it for a bit. I feel certain that she would tell me to sleep on these posts for a bit longer.

With that said, the actual post!

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I am – almost – ready for A Dance With Dragons.

Oh, I'm emotionally ready. More than ready to find out what's happened to certain characters not heard from in years. I've read the sample chapters, but that's not enough.

And I want to know about the dragons.

But where I'm not ready is in the details. Specifically, remembering them. So I started rereading the series – and then realized, given that I'd be rereading them anyway, I might as well blog about them here, one post per book. These won't be particularly organized essays, just mostly random thoughts that hit me as I go through each book, especially since I only have a week to get the next three posts written/posted.

Note 2: I have been somewhat spoiled for a couple of plot bits from Dance With Dragons, but I am leaving those spoilers out of these blog posts. Since most readers of this blog have not had the opportunity to read the book yet, I'd ask those that have to keep this a Dance With Dragons spoiler free zone until at least July 13.

Warnings: This post ended up very long, and although I focus on the first book, I also discuss a MAJOR spoiler from Book 3, Storm of Swords.

( Warning, my readers, there be spoilers ahead!!! )

Yay! Despite the excitement of international conference calls, we did get through this episode!

Warning: mildly spoilery for all of the books, plus a very small spoiler for Dance of Dragons that already appeared on GRRM's blog, plus spoilers for all the episodes so far and sniffly comments about horsies. (SNIFFLE!)

( We're all clear: spoilers ahead, right? )

Three entirely unrelated bits of news:

1) I take on the most controversial of the Narnia books, The Last Battle, over at Tor.com

2) Just in case you didn't hear yet (although I'm pretty sure most of you have) George RR Martin has announced a publication date for Dance of Dragons.

I'm with you all in saying I'll believe it when I see it, and probably on my own of feeling a little sad that now that both Patrick Rothfuss and George RR Martin are delivering/have delivered their long awaited novels, I can't exactly point to them as excuses for not getting my own fiction work done, gulp, gulp.

3) I have a washer/dryer again.

Unfortunately, the first thing that entered the dryer was a black and white cat. I took his squeaks during the removal process as a sign of approval. For the curious, he was less helpful than he thought he was during the installation process, failing to understand that the Lowe's delivery guys were there to plug in the washer and hook up the dryer vents, not scratch a cat. I suppose from the cat point of view that's an understandable mistake.

For the few of you who might have missed it, HBO has greenlit production for a Song of Ice of Fire.

Damn it. This means that we actually have to invest in cable TV!

:: otherwise jumping in glee ::